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Mind Gem
| Model = Unique | Version = | Universe = Earth-616 | LeadDesigner = | AdditionalDesigners = | PlaceOfCreation = | PlaceOfDestruction = | Origin = One of the Infinity Gems | Dimensions = | Weight = | Creators = Steve Englehart; Al Milgrom | First = Captain Marvel Vol 1 41 | HistoryText = One of six Infinity Gems that grants its user control over reality. According to the most commonly accepted origin story, the six gems were once part of an all-powerful being who committed suicide out of loneliness. Its power survived and manifested as six gems. Soul Gems For a long time, knowledge of the true nature of the Gems was unknown and the six were known collectively as "Soul Gems", with much of their powers unrealized by their users. The one that would eventually be identified as the Mind Gem turned up on the planet Deneb IV. Somehow, the Kree Supreme Intelligence knew of it and mentally manipulated natives of the planet to unearth it as part of a subtle step in a byzantine plot to eventually control the dormant power of Rick Jones. The Supreme Intelligence besieged the planet with destructive automatons and ensured Jones and his partner, Captain Marvel would become stranded there at a point when their minds were in danger of merging. The leader of the Denebian underground resistance, who was in the possession of the gem, offered Mar-Vell and Rick a solution to their plight by having their minds enter the Gem to sort themselves out, but the process manifested as a violent mental struggle that was broadcast to the planet's inhabitants by the Gem, intensifying the already bloody war across its surface. This was secretly the intention of the resistance's cyborg General, whose mechanically indifferent mind saw a violently definitive end to the war as the only path to peace. Rambu, a less-cyberized soldier of the resistance, attempted to prevent this when he learned of the General's plan, and with the help of a mental construct of Rick's, went into the Gem to break up the partners' fight. Captain Marvel and Rick Jones emerged from the Gem with their minds intact and were able to continue on their journey to confront the Supreme Intelligence. The Gem remained abandoned in the resistance tunnels beneath Deneb IV, having lost its purpose to the Denebians. The Gem was shortly thereafter picked up by Thanos on a quest to collect them all. Thanos combined the Gem with four others and siphoned energies from the sixth to create a giant synthetic Gem with the intent of destroying the stars of the universe with its absolute power. The combined efforts of Warlock, Captain Marvel, and the Avengers thwarted Thanos' plan and destroyed the combined Gem. For a time, the five combined Gems were thought to be destroyed, but a conclave of the Elders of the Universe eventually learned that they could not be truly destroyed in such a manner and that they were actually scattered across the universe. Having a plan to use the Gems to further their ambitions, the Elders set out to gather them together again. The Kree discovered the one that would later be identified as the Mind Gem and delivered it to the Supreme Intelligence, who equipped it to assist in keeping the blue and pink Kree components of its mind out of conflict. When the Silver Surfer came to confront the Supreme Intelligence about the Kree's aggression against worlds under his protection, the Intelligence used the Gem to absorb the Surfer into its collective as a way to conquer him. The Elder Contemplator had been attempting without success to negotiate with the Intelligence to obtain the Gem. Given the opportunity presented, Contemplator reached out to the Surfer's mind within the Supreme Intelligence, giving him the chance to summon his board and break free of the collective with the Gem in hand. Without the Gem, the Supreme Intelligence quickly descended into madness, rendering it functionally disabled for some time. The Elders had gathered the other five Gems and only needed the one now held by the Silver Surfer. Knowing he opposed them, they took steps to hold his lady loves Shalla-Bal and Mantis hostage. Though both women begged Surfer to sacrifice them rather than allow the Elders to win, the Surfer handed the Gem over. The Elders then sent the force bubble holding the hostages hurtling through space to explode, giving the Surfer only enough time to rescue one of them, him choosing Shalla-Bal. With the Surfer presumably out of the way, the Elders combined the six gathered Gems into a space platform aligned with a star system with six desolate planets the Gems could resonate with, setting up a trap for Galactus. Their apparatus would steal planetary energies from Galactus, channeling them into the planets, thus killing Galactus and subsequently Eternity due to the loss of balance that Galactus maintained. The universe would end and be reborn, with only the Elders surviving due to their earlier victory over Death and as such be true Elders of the new universe as Galactus had been in theirs. Though the Elders successfully trapped Galactus, they failed to handle interference from his heralds. While the Silver Surfer blocked the ray from the Gem apparatus, Nova detonated the star at the center of the system, creating a black hole that consumed the Gems and some of the Elders, saving Galactus. The Elders joined with the In-Betweener in a further scheme to kill Galactus, retrieving the Gems from the black hole, but they were thwarted again by the Silver Surfer. Lord Chaos and Master Order became involved and redistributed the Gems among the In-Betweener and the Elders afterwards, with the one that would soon be revealed as the Mind Gem entrusted to the Grandmaster. Infinity Gauntlet Thanos learned of the Gems' true nature as Infinity Gems from the Infinity Well and set out to gather them once more in a quest to become a god worthy of being Death's consort. The Gradmaster's blue Gem was the last one he needed, and by that time the Grandmaster had prepared intricate safeguards against the approaching Titan. Rather than wield the Gem, he locked it behind impenetrable security and proposed a virtual duel to Thanos with all the Gems as the prize. Grandmaster had secretly begun to fathom the true potential of the Gems as well and was glad to let Thanos collect the other five up to that point so he could claim them all at once. He sabotaged Thanos' weapons to guarantee his victory in the duel, but Thanos cheated as well, sending a robotic duplicate to fight in his place. While Grandmaster was thus occupied, the real Thanos disabled the game and claimed the unlocked Mind Gem, noting that if his opponent had made the better choice to wear it on his person, he might have used its attributes to detect his duplicity. When Thanos assembled all six Gems into his Infinity Gauntlet, he had the power and knowledge to achieve anything he desired, except he found he still didn't know what it would take for Death to return his affection. He attempted various grand gestures, eventually creating a great shrine to Death and fulfilling his promise to her to kill half the population of the universe, removing them from existence with a snap of his fingers. No matter what he did, Death continued to regard him with silent disdain. He became increasingly unstable in his frustration and when a coalition of surviving heroes came to confront him, he was compelled to attempt to entertain Death by limiting his own abilities and giving his enemies a minute chance of victory. He swore off the use of all the Gems except Power in the ensuing battle. Though he defeated many of his opponents through manipulations of time, space, and reality, he kept true to his vow not to read his opponents' minds, allowing himself to be surprised at their tactics. After neutralizing them all, Thanos reclaimed full control of the Gems just in time to face an alliance of Cosmic Beings. When Death stood with the other Abstracts against him, Thanos lost his last vestige of patience and subdued them all, imprisoning them in an energy field. Upon defeating Eternity, he took their place as an abstract being one with the universe. This meant abandoning his physical body, which was still wearing the Gauntlet. Nebula, who up to that point was a helpless bystander being tortured by her grandfather for his amusement, seized the opportunity and stole the Gauntlet. She quickly used the Gauntlet to reset the timeline by 24 hours, more so to spite Thanos' accomplishments than to set things right. She lacked the experience or understanding to make full effective use of the Gems, so Adam Warlock, who had formed more of a connection to the Gems through his time within the Soul Gem, was able to hide from her and eventually separate her from the Gauntlet to claim it for himself. Pledging to be a more worthy supreme being, Warlock ended the conflict and sent everyone on their way. Infinity Watch Warlock did not hold the Infinity Gauntlet for long before Eternity brought his case to the Living Tribunal that the young god was no more suited to hold omnipotence than Thanos. The Tribunal ruled that Warlock disperse the Gems so that no individual could misuse their combined might. Warlock decided to split the Gems among friends and allies he knew would not or could not abuse their potential. He gave the Mind Gem to Moondragon to augment her already formidable mental powers, though he admitted he didn't fully trust her and had set certain safeguards to make sure she would not betray him or use the Gem for evil. Shortly after the Gems' distribution, the Man-Beast abducted Moondragon along with Drax, Gamora, and Pip, and trapped them in a machine to sap their Gems' power and create a vicious energy creature under his control called the Infinity Thrall. Warlock defeated the Man-Beast by causing the destruction of the machine, dispelling the Thrall and freeing the others. Afterwards, the five Gem-holders agreed to stick together as a team known as the Infinity Watch. Moondragon would use the Gem to support her existing telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Despite the Gem's advantage, she still occasionally lost in mental battles and found that she was unable to read the minds of members of the Watch, as well as Thanos. At first, she was unable to penetrate the mental blocks on the amnesiac Maxam, but with Drax and Warlock adding the effects of the Power and Soul Gems, they were able to get a brief glimpse of the mystery man's sealed memories. At one point Moondragon relinquished the Mind Gem to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet as part of a scheme by Warlock to stop the Magus from making the universe collide with his doppelganger dimension. Ostensibly, Warlock would prepare to use the Gauntlet while Galactus took Gamora to meet with Eternity and the Living Tribunal to reverse the ruling on using the Gems in unison, but it instead turned out to be a trap to draw the Magus out of hiding. Magus stole the Infinity Gauntlet to achieve godhood just as the ruling was reversed, but he didn't realize the Reality Gem included was a fake. Without it, Magus was vulnerable to Warlock's counterattack, who wrested the supreme power with the assistance of Eternity and Infinity who represented the reality Magus lacked control over. With Magus and his threat vanquished, the Infinity Gems were returned to the Infinity Watch and the ban on the Gems' combination was reinstated. At a time when Thor had gone mad and was irrationally attacking anyone he encountered, including the Infinity Watch, Moondragon used her Gem to manifest the personification of Thor's insanity, a black-armored Valkyrie. While it made the nature of Thor's condition more visible to the others, it didn't help much as the Valkyrie was able to join Thor in the fight. Later, when the Infinity Watch invaded the dimension of Count Abyss to challenge the omnipotent despot, Abyss was able to defeat the Watch mostly by mystically turning the power of the Gems against their owners. Moondragon attempted to fight Abyss psychically, but lost and had her senses sealed in darkness until Abyss was defeated. Afterwards, Moondragon briefly lost the Gem once more when Strange attacked the team in an attempt to steal them all. The sorceror's shade gave up and returned the Gems upon realizing they couldn't work together. When Moondragon was gravely injured in battle, the Watch considered electing a new guardian for the Gem, but even comatose she was able to telepathically act by piggybacking on the consciousness of Drax and Warlock. When Maxam regained his memories and attempted to kill Warlock before he could become the Magus, Moondragon planted a mental node in Maxam's mind that would make him believe he accomplished his mission even though Warlock lived. Just before the illusion played out, the Infinity Gems all inexplicably vanished from the universe. Nonetheless, the illusion played out as programmed. Moondragon maintained much of her psychic might even without the Mind Gem. Ultraverse While details are inconsistent, the cause of the Gems' disappearance was Rune of the Ultraverse, who had just been accidentally transported to Earth-616 and quickly became obsessed with the Infinity Gems upon sensing their power. He somehow first stole the Time Gem and used it to freeze time, then proceeded to take the other five Gems from their owners in the space between instants. The Living Tribunal, unaffected by time manipulation and sensing the imminent violation of his decree against the union of the Gems, brought the Silver Surfer into the frozen time and charged him with preventing it at all costs. The Surfer soon found Rune wearing the Soul Gem on his forehead and the other five arranged on his right-hand knuckles in a pattern similar to the Infinity Gauntlet. The Soul Gem's will was supplanting Rune's own and forcing him to open a rift to his home dimension. At that point, the Surfer attacked Rune, with a blast of the Power Cosmic to his hand dispersing the five Gems on it into the vortex, causing them and Rune to scatter throughout the Ultraverse and restarting the normal flow of time in Earth-616. The Mind Gem landed in the Canoga Park Zoo of Los Angeles of Earth-93060. A chimp named Bobo ate it and quickly became a local curiosity with its ability to communicate through coherent written English. Loki, who had detected the Infinity Gems' arrival in the Ultraverse and was trying to collect them, sent Primevil to retrieve the Mind Gem. Under Loki's influence, Primevil killed Bobo and took the Gem, but what Loki didn't account for was Primevil being compelled to equip the Gem himself. With his intelligence greatly increased, Primevil attempted to court Mantra while dodging Loki. Mantra, trying to get rid of Primevil, tracked Loki back to Vahdala to confront him. During the fight, Primevil tried to absorb Loki, but Loki allowed it, confident his will would dominate. Mantra broke them up by dislodging the Mind Gem, returning Primevil to his savage state and allowing Loki to add the Gem to his collection. The Grandmaster, who had been looking for an opportunity to reclaim the Mind Gem, followed its trail to the Ultraverse. There he encountered Sersi, who had become possessed by a seventh Gem that had been residing in the Ultraverse the whole time. Coming to an accord, Grandmaster then approached Loki with a challenge. If he won, he would get the Mind Gem back, and if Loki won, Grandmaster would tell him what he knew of the seventh Gem that he had yet to collect. Loki tried to use the Mind Gem to pull the information from Grandmaster's thoughts, but the rapport he had formed during his time with the Gem allowed Grandmaster to guard his mind save for the truth of the promise he brought. Loki eventually agreed to Grandmaster's game and won, though his "prize" came in the form of Sersi, who only wanted a chance to get close to Loki so the Ego Gem could merge with the other six. The Infinity Gems incarnated into a being called Nemesis, who attempted to use her creative forces to remake the two universes. Even the seven Gems together did not make a cohesive whole, however, and the Ego Gem's consciousness found itself at odds with some of the voices of the other Gems. This weakness allowed heroes of the two universes to fight back against her, and ultimately Black Knight struck a decicive blow on her crown where the Gems were stored, destroying the Ego Gem and scattering the other six in an explosion of creative force that would send everyone back where they belonged while restructuring the Ultraverse from the ground up. The remains of the Ego Gem's essence was split among the Power, Soul, Mind, and Space Gems, allowing them each to take on autonomous living forms that shared Nemesis' malicious intents. The Time and Reality Gems, whose individual consciousnesses rebelled against the others in the interest of preserving the fabric of existence, remained in their original forms and found other hosts in the reforming Ultraverse to mitigate the chaos in Nemesis' wake. The Mind Gem's living form appeared as a green humanoid alien with an exceptionally large brain. Its exploits in this form before turning up in its original Gem form again in Earth-616 are unknown. Illuminati After the Illuminati came to possess the Infinity Gems, Professor Xavier was given the Mind Gem. After his death, he bequeathed it to his student Beast. When the Illuminati attempted to use the Infinity Gauntlet to push away another universe that was colliding with Earth-616, the Mind Gem shattered. Infinity Wars Following the destruction of the entire Multiverse and its eventual restoration, the destroyed Infinity Gems were recreated and scattered across the universe. The Mind Gem (now colored yellow) fell in the hands of a group of monks that attempted to take it to Doctor Strange for safekeeping. On their way to the Sanctum Sanctorum, they were attacked by Skrulls. Petty thug Turk Barrett stumbled into the fight, and got hold of the stone. After feeling a taste of the Mind Stone's power, Turk fled with it while the battling factions killed each other. Turk used the stone to build a criminal empire, gaining the loyalty of fellow criminals he helped with the Mind Stone's power. Doctor Strange eventually found out about Turk and tried to convince him to hand over the Mind Stone. However, Turk managed to distract him, using the Mind Stone to force bystanders into attempting to commit suicide, and slipped away. Stephen opted against taking the Mind Stone from Turk by force, believing it might be fate that he had to wield it. When Doctor Strange convened parley between the wielders of the Infinity Stones to form the Infinity Watch, a fight broke out when tensions between Turk, his henchmen and the rest of the Infinity Watch escalated. The meeting was further disrupted by the arrival of Gamora, who had already claimed the Power Stone as part of her plan to collect all Infinity Stones and reunite with a part of herself trapped within the Soul Gem. In the middle of the chaos, Doctor Strange teleported himself and Turk to another dimension, and convinced him to hand over the Mind Stone, no longer believing that it was his fate to wield it. However, not long afterwards, Gamora managed to steal the Mind Stone from Strange, as well as the Time Stone that was also in his possession. She would end up claiming all Infinity Stones in the end. Gamora folded the universe in half and merged the two halves together, sending the new universe into a pocket universe called Warp World inside the Soul Gem so the merged souls would become prey to the monstrous Devondra. While waiting for Warp World's destruction, Gamora traveled to the God Quarry to investigate what laid beneath it. Inside Warp World, Loki rallied a group of heroes called the Cosmic Avengers to stop Gamora, and they escaped from the Soul Gem using copies of the Infinity Stones found within Warp World which Gamora had unwittingly brought into existence when she created Warp World. Ms. Marvel's incorruptible soul earned her the Mind Stone. The Cosmic Avengers confronted Gamora and took the Power, Reality and Space Stones from her. Loki in turn took these stones for himself in addition to the copies of the Soul, Time and Mind Stones, thus assembling a complete set of Infinity Stones. He used the stones to send Gamora to Warp World before transporting himself to the unknown realm that existed beneath the Quarry of Creation, where he found a group of Celestials guarding a deposit of countless Infinity Stones. Loki returned from beneath the Quarry of Creation, and used his Infinity Stones to render the surplus gems inert. He handed over his set to the Cosmic Avengers so they could repair the universe. After returning to Soul World and defeating Devondra, the Cosmic Avengers joined forces with Adam Warlock to restore the universe while keeping Warp World intact within the Soul Gem. Adam Warlock then used the Soul Gem to flee Soul World with the Cosmic Avengers and his allies while Drax the Destroyer sacrificed himself to keep the portal leading to the real universe open. After sending Gamora someplace to set her on a path of redemption, Adam Warlock decided to give the Infinity Stones sentience and let them decide their destinies in order to stop the conflicts over their power. Properties The Mind Stone gives its owner psionic powers like telepathy and telekinesis or can augment the preexisting mental powers of its user. Because of the circuit formed by the Infinity Stones, how much of the Mind Stone's potential somebody can tap into depends on the strength of their soul, meaning that possession of the Soul Gem allows for a better use of the Mind Stone. In turn, possession of the Mind Stone allows for better control of the Power Stone. Furthermore, when used in conjunction with the other gems, it can link its user with all other minds in the universe at once. Alternate Reality Versions Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) The Mind Gem in this reality is said to have been created when Odin defeated Hidelbard, the most astute giant in Jotunheim. Odin fell the giant and used his own sword's magic to steal his intelligence. However, the intensity of Hidelbard's mind caused the fabric of the Nine Worlds to collapse and concentrate Hidelbard's power into a gem. At some point in time, the Gem fell into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession, and it was stored in Project Pegasus for a decade. It was stolen by Modi when he assaulted Pegasus' facility to arm the Hydra troops under his command. He used it to take control of Thor's mind and force innocent people into joining his army. When Modi and his troops were attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D., Modi used the Gem to project into Captain America's mind a perfect dream world, in order to break his will. However, Rogers snapped out of it. After getting hold of his shield, which had been taken by the mentally-controlled Thor, Captain America destroyed the spear Modi was using to hold the Gem, breaking Modi's control over everyone. Before Modi could retrieve the Gem, which went missing after falling to the ground, Thor killed him. The Gem was later retrieved by S.H.I.E.L.D., and it prompted the Invisible Woman to search for the other Gems. Five were identified, but only four retrieved. The Mind Gem and the other four Gems were stolen by the Dark Ultimates, who attempted to assemble the Infinity Gauntlets. Shortly after Tony Stark got his hands on all of the eight Infinity Gems, a tear in the fabric of reality caused by a Wolverine echoed through the Multiverse, and shattered the Infinity Gems. 2010s Marvel Animated Universe (Earth-12041) In this universe, the Red Skull stole the Infinity Stones (as they are called, instead of "Infinity Gems") from his master Thanos and returned to Earth. He had his ship heavily damaged, which caused the Stones to be scattered all over the Earth. The Mind Stone supposedly sought M.O.D.O.C., who used its power to extend his abilities to control minds. He used the Mind Stone to take complete control over S.H.I.E.L.D., as a mean to try to destroy the Avengers. When the Avengers discovered M.O.D.O.K. was behind S.H.I.E.L.D.'s odd behavior, they attempted to reclaim the Mind Stone. The confrontation ended up with the Stone transferring the Avengers' mind into different bodies from their teammates. While the Avengers escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D. while trying to get used to inhabiting another body, M.O.D.O.K. mind was transferred into the Tricarrier. M.O.D.O.K. used S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to build equipment to transfer his mind back to his body while still having control over the Tricarrier. However, the Avengers managed to stop him and claim the Mind Stone. The Stone was contained with the other three that had been retrieved by the Avengers, under special care by Tony Stark. However, the Black Widow noticed that Tony was slowly being corrupted by the Stones. She sneaked into the vault and stole them, with the intention to send them to Asgard for safekeeping. Their plan failed, and they resorted to Doctor Strange so he could bury them between realities. However, Dormammu appeared shortly after to take the gems. Black Widow was forced to wield the Stones in order to vanish him back to his dimension. After initially falling into the Stones' influence, Natasha was capable of resisting their control and reject them. However, as soon as she stripped of the Stones, Thanos returned, and assembled the Infinity Gauntlet with the Power Stone that was already in his possession. Using the Gauntlet, Thanos created a citadel near Earth's orbit, and started modifying Earth's climate, causing anomalies around the globe. In order to defeat him, the Avengers got Thanos to fight them with each individual Stone. He used the Mind Gem to fuel them with anger and make them fight each other, however, the Hulk managed to get them to focus their rage and attack Thanos, for which the Titan decided to stop its influence over them. After getting the readings of each individual Stone, Iron Man activated Arsenal, who seized the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos. When the Avengers returned to Earth, it was revealed a backdoor left in the robot's programming allowed Ultron to possess him. Arsenal was re-shaped into Ultron, and the evil A.I. revealed itself. The five Stones were drained of their power by Ultron. Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-199999) The Mind Stone was originally housed in the sceptre given to Loki to aid in his invasion of Earth. Placed within the sceptre, the stone granted its wielder the power to enslave others' minds. When Loki was defeated, the sceptre was taken into the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Sleeper Hydra agents smuggled the sceptre into Sokovia, where Baron Strucker began using it to experiment with human enhancement. However, only two subjects survived the process: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. After capturing the sceptre from Strucker in a raid with his fellow Avengers, Tony Stark analyzed it and determined that it contained an advanced AI, which could be used to bring about his vision of a global peacekeeping program called Ultron. However, Ultron was an immediate failure, and the AI stole the sceptre away again. Thor subjected himself to a vision which clarified that the sceptre contained the Mind Stone, one of six Infinity Stones. Ultron used the Mind Stone to empower a perfect organic metal body for himself. In capturing the android body, the Avengers reacquired the Mind Stone, and after it came to life with benevolent programming it proved to them that it was an ally rather than a threat. The android, then calling himself the Vision, aided the Avengers in defeating Ultron. Thor subsequently opted to leave the Mind Stone in the Vision's care, both because the Vision had demonstrated his good character by lifting Mjolnir, and also because the stone seemed safe in the Vision's care. Scarlet Witch's abilities are connected to the Mind Stone, and she could manipulate it and Vision, such as controlling his ability to change his density against his will. She also was capable of destroying the stone (along with Vision), which she did when it became apparent Thanos was inevitably going to retrieve the stone. However, Thanos used the Time Stone to reverse time and make the Mind Stone whole again and ripped it from Vision's head and added the stone to his Infinity Gauntlet, completing his collection of the Infinity Stones, before killing half the population of the universe. Three weeks later, Thanos destroyed the Mind Stone along with the other Infinity Stones. 2012 New York Time Heist (Earth-TRN732) In this reality, the Mind Stone shared its history with its Earth-199999 counterpart up until 2012 after the Battle of New York. Following Loki's defeat, Jasper Sitwell and Brock Rumlow took the Mind Stone, but they were intercepted by the future Steve Rogers, who claimed to be an agent of Hydra and acquired the Mind Stone. Rogers soon encountered his past self and knocked him out with the Mind Stone. Later, after using the Infinity Stones to resurrect half of the universe, Rogers returned the Mind Stone to its place in time. | CurrentOwner = Earth-616: None; Earth-199999: Thanos | PreviousOwners = | Notes = * In the Ultimate Universe, the Mind Gem was the only of the Infinity Gems to be called by its name, and one of the only two to be used separate from the Infinity Gauntlets, the other one being what appeared to be the Power Gem. | Trivia = | Links = }} Category:Infinity Gems Category:Earth-12041 Category:Telepaths Category:Telekinesis Category:Astral Projection Category:Power Bestowal Category:Telepathic Immunity Category:Earth-616 Category:Earth-199999 Category:Earth-1610 Category:Mind Control Category:Thanos' Equipment Category:Stones